Tandu Singh Gara

Tandu Singh Gara (14 October 1916-23 December 1983) was a politician of India from the Indian National Congress party. He was assassinated in 1983 by Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) member Chander Singh Iyengar.

Biography
Tandu Singh Gara was born on 14 October 1910 in Kasur, Panjab, British India, in the United Kingdom (present-day Pakistan) to a Sikh family. Gara enlisted in the British Army in 1940 at the start of World War II in Europe, and he served in Ethiopia against the Italian Empire. Gara was racially and religiously abused by the English and even the African soldiers, and he was arrested in 1943 back in India for going AWOL due to his mistreatment. Originally supposed to be shot, he reasoned with the authorities and was discharged from the military. After this incident, he was destined for greatness.

In 1947, he became one of the leaders of the Indian independence movement and was a self-proclaimed socialist, which helped to unite the poor people of Panjab under his banner. He lost the presidential elections, but he won a seat in the parliament of India, representing the Indian town of Patti in Punjab. Gara was unable to return to his hometown of Kasur when it voted to join Pakistan, a nation that was declared independent from India by the Muslim population of British India. Gara opened up dialogue with representatives from Pakistani Punjab in order to improve trans-Sikh relations, and he maintained some contact with his family. Gara was an inspirational leader of the Sikh people, but some Sikh freedom fighters wished him badly after he declared his support for Indian unity.

The Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) independence movement for Khalistan (a proposed Sikh state) set a bounty of $200,000 on him, as he was seen as a "collaborator" with the Indian government. On 23 December 1983, after he left praying at the Golden Temple of Amritsar, he was gunned down by Chander Singh Iyengar with a submachine gun. He took fifteen bullets to his chest, and he died at the scene. Iyengar was arrested shortly after and died in prison in 2015.